Tuesday, March 4, 2008

the true man

since its woman's month this march, i have thought of writing down something related with it.even before i have learned how to put deodorant, i have already vigilantly boycotting one specific deodorant brand.i was in elementary when my nose first fell inlove with this refreshing but musky scent my uncle used to wear. but i wouldn't say that everything that came in next was history, dont'worry. my uncle was living with us during those days in manila while finishing his college years. i so like the scent that i dropped using my cologne that time, atlantis. then i was secretly sneaking into his room whenever he goes out and excessively spray it out all over my body. admit or not, wearing cologne during those years makes you stand out in the class.eventually my uncle noticed that his month use of the product dropped to a week or couple of so. so he confronted us and asked us who was using his deodorant. it was actually the first time i heard of the word and realized that it was not something that you spray on your entire body rather it was something that you put in your armpits. from then on, i just can't wait for my body sweat just to realized later the true essence of the saying: be careful of what you wish for.nonetheless, i didn't confess of course. aside from the fact that i was stealing something, my uncle would probably running his nuts out hearing that i was using his deodorant spray as a cologne.but it was not that reason why i started boycotting the brand it was because of its commercial advertisement that i saw a couple of months after.when i was in highschool, i had this girl seatmate in which i really had a big crush on. we were both transferee and don't know much people at school. so we were virtually inseparable until all of a sudden our class escort, who was for me, the epitome of narcicist-go maniac freak up until now, courted her. eventually, we don't hang out together. he was always tagging along where our class escort was just to find out how a**hole that guy was. one day, i overheard his circle talking about them and find out that our class escort happens to have girl friends for each of the highschool in the area. i was so mad and could not believe that there is actaully a person that could do that thing. my friend eventually learned about this and decided to broke up with him. but that didn't stop there. when my friend and our escort broke he began spreading rumors that it was actually my friend who courted him and insisted herself to be his girlfriend. being the diplomatic me, i didn't raise a fist fight. instead, i wrote nasty things about that guy inside the men toilet and even wrote his home phone number at the backseat of a public bus that goes across the entire region. just don't ask me what did i write about him attached into his number. i just don't want to switch the sympathies that i have already established.the incident was probaly be my launching point of being gender sensitive and knowing the concepts of machoism etc. a couple of months after the incident, the commercial advertisement of axe aired on local tv. if i remember it correctly, it was man walking a long a street. then after the man put on the deo, women he came across with became hysterical and chased him. somehow, i could clearly see the face of our escort on him and it made me flare.but the personal angst towards him transgressed into a more bigger setting when i reached college. i can say i began to be more consciously aware and sensitive regarding gender matters. i feel that airing such commercial ads puts the women back on the position that they are struggling to break away. it is like saying that men is always in control against women by a matter of a spray or two with the deodorant.it boost the macho ego sexuality in every man and creates a false notion that using the product would enable them to fulfill their sexual pleasures. i really find it very insensitive for the part of the woman. as if the ad is commodifying them into a thing that is controllable and has the purpose just to abide with what the man says.i am man and i am doing this not because i wanted to brag that i know this social things. but because i have a mother, sisters, aunts and even girl friends who deserve the proper respect that they are giving to me. for me, a true man is someone who respects others and is willing to make a change into somthing that he finds wrong.

Hahaha, I thought it was quite funny that you used your uncle's deodorant spray as cologne. =)

I think I know which Axe commercial you are referring, although I am sure they show different commercials there in the Philippines than they do here in the U.S., but I am sure, the themes are the same: men spraying the Axe cologne, and women falling at their feet or chasing them to the ends of the earth. I agree that the manner of the commercial is quite derogatory to women, but at the same time, it is showing that women too have desires and are not merely submissive creatures. It also shows women as predators, and no longer the prey. It's interesting that you view the commercial as negative towards women, whereas I see it as the liberation of women's libido.

But, I applaud you for being a true man, which is one that can view into the center of a woman's soul.